I'm sitting here this morning with Michael. Still in awe of what could be the best Star Wars movie made. Certainly it has now usurped Empire as my favorite. The highly dramatic, high impact tragedy left me in system shock.

But what I and Michael wanted to comment on was not the movie rather but the memories. The last two days you guys have made us feel a part of a second family then any group I could compare it to. From Shannon dragging us out on the Sounds field, seeing Greg and Michael swap war stories of the original Trilogy screenings, Toymaster Mike dropping the fliers off with me of all people the newbiest of all, Loki and Skip and all of the 501st for continuing to drag us down the dark path in search of armor, Glen for sharing memories of C3 and making us feel as if we were there (in between the Maraih Carry screen saver, and to Ryan as per quote from Michael a true Jedi Master who shared not only his encouragment, wisdom, but also and often his own property to people he hardly knew. Definately thanks to you Ryan you're a example of a Star Wars fan and a friend. To anyone I have not listed I did not do so out of spite, I know its easy to feel jaded if your name isn't seen but I mean to ill will you guys are great friends and I and Michael (gots to get him a puter) plan to contiue showing up to events, hanging out, and oh yeah trooping.

The Force definately is with this Fan Force chapter, I don't think I could find a better own anywhere.

Loved it, it was non-stop from start to finish....though Anakin's fall was not what i thought it would be...I feel he jumped into the dark ways, not fell! He had at least three oppertunites to take the right path...though the story seemed a bit rushed, all questions were answered and it was well told.

Thanks for the comments, Joe..I hope you had a good time. I enjoy seeing the new generation of fans take this all in, being a first generation fan myself....
your enthusiasim and openness to those that barely know you is refreshing.

Been out of town for awhile, just got back in town for the midnight showing last night. Me and my cuz got there about 8:30..... Everything from the people in line to the people in the theatre to the movie itself was superb. I found myself crying for the last 45 minutes or so, I'm in touch with my feminine side, or at least that makes me feel better to say .... There were alot of great scenes in the movie and the general feel and mood and structure was what made this one stand out the most to me. I had been spoiled by the book and the comic, therefore it's hard for it to surpass TESB just for the Vader being Luke's Father shocker value, but it ranks right beneath it.... Overall a great movie and a great time... Lucas is back in my Christmas Card list....

I marked out and loved the fact they had a young Grand Moff Tarkin at the end and the resemblance was stunning.... Some people on other boards I read were complaining about the way Vader burst from the shackles and somewhat stumbled, but to me that added to the value of believability, because he was not used to using his new libs, so of course he would be awkward looking in it.... And people were complaining about the ' Noooooooo ' he erupted into after learning the fate of Amidala, to me that wasn't a big deal and I thought was pretty creepy with the Emperor sitting there and enjoying the manipulation he concocted. And even though I'm a fan of the Dark Side, I still root for Yoda and he provided two stellar scenes where I was applauding his attack.
To me the Actor that stole the show was Hayden, his portrayal of Anakin was spot on - I thought, and seeing him go from Whiny, Ungrateful Anakin to Cold Blooded and Conniving Anakin was great. I loved when Obi-Wan had sabered off his lower legs and he's lecturing him and Anakin just lets out the gutt-growl of ' I Hate You ' hahahahaha wow, that was great! And the first ten minutes with R2-D2 was great!!! Anyways , I've waxed on about it too much, Great Movie, Great Ending, Just a Great Overall Experience....

i think the Th20 should have done c3. lol let us in the building around.....730? seperated us into nice little lines per screening.......let us into our designated theater at 930! and had little contests and stuff.......

i missed meeting those of you that were there...

the movie was incredible......the locations were stunning, R2 was great!, the battles were sooo cool, the dark side was, well, DARK! oooooo was it ever.

i felt it was a bit rushed too, but maybe thats cuz i read the book......

definitely PG13. i'm gladd they chose to show the "ew" anikin lava part, and not the younglings being slaughtered.
that whole thing was moving.. the order 66 or whatever....

where was Mon Mothma???

i LOVVVVEEEEEED the paart with yoda parting with the wookies! HOW SWEET! petting yoda then putting him on whichever wookie's shoulder! aawwwwwww!!!!!

i agree too that he didn't exactly "fall" to the dark side, which is more what i got from the book, but he jumped head first into it...guess they have to accelerate it for the movie.

i thought Vader stumbling out off the table was a wonderful touch- to still be human, but trapped in that outfit....

the NOOOOOOOO was, to me, funny. just cuz unfortunately, it's been spoofed so much. but the Emperor loving every pain he went thru was just so horrible.

i thought at some points- "wow palpi turned into a scenile old man!" the laughing and like rolling around, some of it was .....wierd.....

they did a WONDERFUL job showing how seducing the darkside can be

liked the introduction of tarkin......and Needa was in there too but in the book, yes?

missed the more elaborate scenes with padme and anikin and her and bail and mon mothma.....

felt the strangulation scene could have been way more powerful....i missed the Droids dragging padme to the ship......

still wondering who sifo dias is...

the splitting of the twins was great to see......
but i'm still not satisfied with... in ROTJ them making a point to have leah remember her REAL mother as very beautiful, but sad.
uhm, right. she couldn't the way he ends it! unless it's a force thing? like....it brought the images of padme to leah?

I am still, in shock!!! I mean That movie was so awesome. Plus everyone at the theater was participating in it. They either brought lightsabers or something that they could use for the movie. Me myself I dressed as Darth Sidious and my friend dressed as Darth Vader. Lmao, someone rated me a nine on the costume and then they said "Nothing, like master and apprentice coming to see a movie together!" I was like.. Yessss sir! I went to go see the midnight showing at the new Rocky Top Ten theater in Crossville.. Not many people dressed up except for us guys from Jamestown, aka Fentress County. When the movie started you good just feel the happiness... EVERYONE APPLAUDED as sooon as the lights dimed.. Then you could see lightsabers of all sorts of colors RISE into the air. I mean it felt so GOOD to see such fans of star wars for once.. Then this two young punks made fun of me and my friend for dressing up and this older man told them that they were the stupid ones for not participating for the movie! I mean COME ON, Who didn't dress up for it? The movie was the closing of one of the best ever epics known to man! You have to dress up! But anyways, I think they did rush it a bit... But in the end ALOT of questions were answered by this one movie... This one movie to end them ALL.

I would first off like to say. WOW what a movie. I camped out to 30 hours in front of the H27. And it was worth every second and every hour. We all had so much fun being there to experices this great moment in history. I myself am planning to see ROTS 20 times. But it was great to meet everyone one here in person. You are all great people. I am also looking in to maybe joining the 501st. But it has been a time in my life I will never forget. I hope one day to tell this story to my kids.

I just started the book today. And I get more and more excited with every page I turn. I know its ggoing to fill in all my gaps I have(Which is not many).

Again I would like to say thank you to everyone. It has be a experice of a life time and it has been something I will never forget. Thank you all.

And Zeke keep up the good lightsaber fighting. Your anger has made you powerful.

A big thanks to all of you in the Nashville fan force. You made us Jackson Fans feel right at home. I enjoyed your company most of all that evening. With all due respect to Lucas, you guys made the movie an event to be remembered. The lightsaber duels, cosplay, the seemingly unlimited supply of various fandom...all wonderful. My only regret is not getting there any sooner. That and wonking Skywalker2584 in the chin with a spinning saber slash. My friends and I talked the entire drive home about it and they too say thank you for your warm welcome. We made a SW day of it - hard to get figures, all the pictures, and my favorite Dueling on ch 4 news and taking out that little droid that looked a lot like a camera microphone. Thanks to JediAgent for the concession assistance and Shannon's lil Padame for the great duel, She totaled owned me. Thanks for each one of you taking the time to assimilate us into the group. DvDMaster you looked fantastic in the armor, as far as we were concerned you werent you without when you changed out. And fought well you have Keon_Ulic, now release your anger, strike me down with all your hate, feel the power of the darkside, only then well you fulfill your destiny!!!!
Looking forward to the Digital Road trip and seeing all you great people at Dragon Con this year.
The force is strong with this fan group!

When Obi-Wan and Yoda were in the Jedi Temple watching the surveillance holograms, Obi-Wan and Yoda were referring to Palpatine as "The Emperor". How did they know to call him that? He was still the "Chancellor," as far as they knew. He was still in the process of forming the Galactic Empire. Even Anakin referred to Palpatine as "Chancellor" on Mustafar.

I honestly was not feeling great about it 30 min. into the movie. It just didn't have much texture when it came to dialogue. But, thankfully, it ended up owning my face! It'd definately the best of the prequels and close to being as good as one of the original three... but not quite. I think all the CGI was great, but also made it lose a sense of art that the original movies had. Yes, it's going to win Oscars and it should, but it wasn't the best of the Star Wars movies. I will have to say that it was the best that it could have been though. For the movie to be any better, it would have to have been broken up into parts because there was WAY too much story to tell in 2 and a half hours. But, with that time, Lucas kicked some tail. It was awesome nontheless.

I really couldn't discuss the movie when we were in the car waiting for the 15 minute traffic jam to move. I was so awestruck that I just smiled about it.

The movie was beyond my expectation. I even shed a tear when Padame died.

I do have a question though.....

at the end of the flick, yoda explains to obi wan to go hang out at tatooine for eh - 30 years or so (haha) and during that time, more training was going to take place between Obi Wan and Quai Don (or whatever his name is). I don't remember seeing that happen ever. Or discussed again....did i miss something?

When Obi-Wan and Yoda were in the Jedi Temple watching the surveillance holograms, Obi-Wan and Yoda were referring to Palpatine as "The Emperor". How did they know to call him that? He was still the "Chancellor," as far as they knew. He was still in the process of forming the Galactic Empire. Even Anakin referred to Palpatine as "Chancellor" on Mustafar."

That got my attention too. Maybe they were listening to some Galactic equivalent of NPR or CNN while they were investigating the Temple, but I thought it was way to early to be calling him that on their part.

"at the end of the flick, yoda explains to obi wan to go hang out at tatooine for eh - 30 years or so (haha) and during that time, more training was going to take place between Obi Wan and Quai Don (or whatever his name is). I don't remember seeing that happen ever. Or discussed again....did i miss something? "

You didn't miss anything on screen. It was an intended scene between Yoda and Qui-Gon Jinn.

It's placement was to be right after Sidious finds Anakin on Mustafar...in the next immediate shot- with Yoda meditating intensely, Bail Organa comes in to tell him Obi-Wan has made contact. Yoda's meditation was to be accompanied by a conversation with Qui-Gon Jinn,(supposedly just a voiceover of Liam Neeson) about how he had found a way to be one of the "force-ghosts" we all know & love. They apparently just shaved it off from the beginning of that scene for pacing reasons.

Its been a bit of thorn for a number of fans who were really looking forward to hearing from Qui-Gonn again. Its in Novel though.

Well, I believe they knew to call him emperor because they found out that Palpatine was of the sith and was the Sith Lord by Anakin. I believe thats how they knew. Or maybe I am wrong.

I don't think you understood my question. They were calling him "Emperor" before anyone outside the Senate had even heard of the Empire.

at the end of the flick, yoda explains to obi wan to go hang out at tatooine for eh - 30 years or so (haha) and during that time, more training was going to take place between Obi Wan and Quai Don (or whatever his name is). I don't remember seeing that happen ever. Or discussed again....did i miss something?

You didn't see it again, and you won't. It's the time span of 18 years, where the spirit of Qui-Gon Jinn teaches Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda how to "vanish" when they die.

On another note, I REALLY enjoyed the movie. I thought it was the best prequel by far. I'm glad I didn't read the book like a lot of you did beforehand. I didn't really want the attitude of "they cut this from the movie." Instead, I'll probably read the book this week and think "hey, they really elaborated on this in the book."

I always wondered why Vader was so confused when Obi-Wan vanished, and Yoda made it look like it was common place, we all figured thats what happened to Jedi when they die. They Qui-Gon blows that theory out of the water and everyone's asking what the force ghost? Makes sense he's the one to figure it our, the most attuned to the living force and all, but sucks he had to die to figure it out.
After ANH I think Vader's smart enough to figure out there's something Obi-Wan nor the Palpi had taught him and the spent the next 12 yrs figuring out on his own. That and he was strong enough with the Force being conceived from it and all.
And at first I was upset that Lucas cut the original actor out of ROTJ at the end and replaced him with young Anakin, but is more consistent now with what Obi_wan had said all along. Vader had killed Anakin and he was that age when he "Died."

I too enjoy the fact that I kept myself from the books until now. It's like the saga is finally over, but for me I can live it all over again with even more than the first time around.

"I wonder who taught Anakin how to retain his identity after he died?"

I heard somewhere (may have been something Lucas said to a Q&A at CIII) that to become a force ghost a number of things were involved, not the least of which was having someone already on the other side to help.

Qui-Gonn apparently had no such help and of course didn't vanish upon death. But he had been studying some ancient arts (according to some of the missing scene dialogue), and this is probably why he was supposed to reveal himself as little more than a voice to Yoda... He still had some kinks to work out in the process. By the time Obi-Wan and Yoda both vanish, they had long been in contact with Qui-Gonn and some of these teachings. Anakin's final death of course comes after all of these events... and what do you know? No less than 3 on the other side to help him along me-thinks.

I guess I'll rank this one 4th in the series, right behind TESB. Best of the prequels.

I saw it in Murfreesbooro, only had to see 1 or 2 trailers for other films.

Sifo Dias? They explained that one already. He was a Jedi Master who died about the same time as Qui Gon. Someone (Palpatine) used his identity to order the clone army.

Yep, we got ripped on the Leia thing-she had to remember her FOSTER mother, since Padme died immediately after giving birth to Leia.

Yoda had already watched the security holograms. That was how he knew to call Palpatine "Emperor." There were recordings of events inside the senate and Palpatine's office.

Yoda and Obi Wan had both spent 18 years studying how to retain their identities after death. Anakin became a Force ghost because they helped him. Thought that had been common knowledge for over 20 years.

Ok, I'm a little ticked off, I've been trying to post this message since last night in reply to miTunes and it hasn't been letting me post, been giving me an error message. But this is what I was going to post (this is about what Yoda said about Obi getting training from Qui-Gon):

The same way that Luke was "trained" or mentored, rather, by Obi-Wan after he died/disappeared. I'm assuming that since Qui-Gon didn't disappear, the Jedi turning into a spirit didn't happen until Qui-Gon discovered it after dying. I'm sure the training happened between movies and that's how Obi-Wan was able to do it when Darth Vader defeated him in ANH.

Someone argued that the match between Obi-Wan and Anakin made the one in ANH look very bad (how can you compete with 1000+ moves in a duel) but in ANH Obi-Wan pretty much gave up, not just because he knew he couldn't win, but he knew that the only way for Luke to be ready for the final battle was if he was able to "train" him (as Qui-Gon did to Obi) in spirit. Cool stuff.

I think some of us are looking too far into the "Leia remembering her mother" thing. I stand by my theory that Leia somehow senses these memories from her mom while in the womb and shortly after being born. These kids areAnakin's kids. Anything force-related is possible. Hey, the books have even crazier and more unbelievable things than this!

Oops. Sorry how that was "common knowledge" that Obi and Yoda taught Ani how to retain his identity. I forget where that is stated in the movies.

Let's not forget here that "explained" and "assumed" have two entirely different meanings.